Glock, which manufactures globally-popular polymer-and-steel pistols is not going to abide rival Sig Sauer providing the Army’s next handgun without a fight.
The company filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) last Friday of the Army’s award to Sig of the Modular Handgun System contract worth up to $580 million. Sig’s 9mm P320 semi-automatic pistol took the award on Jan. 19.
Glock filed the protest Feb. 24. The GAO now has until June 5 to weigh Glock’s argument that its G17 or G19 – essentially the same pistol with different barrel lengths – pistol better met the Army’s MHS requirements.
MHS replaces the M9 Beretta pistol that has been the standard issue handgun for the U.S. Army and Marine Corps since the 1980s. “As a matter of long standing policy,” the Army would not disclose the names of the other competitors in any competitive solicitation. But people within and outside the Army had long favored Sig and Glock as frontrunners after Smith & Wesson – teamed with General Dynamics [GD] – dropped out.
Both the Glock 19/17 and Sig P320 are commercially available handguns, but the Glock is considerably less expensive per unit. That will matter less because the Army plans to buy more than half a million copies.
Glock pistols are standard issue for law enforcement and military units worldwide, including the FBI and some U.S. Special Operations units. But they are not truly modular in that the same handgun frame cannot accept multiple barrel lengths and calibers. The basic Glock is made in several calibers and configurations and shares common parts, but some are not interchangeable.
The new SIG Sauer pistol can be fitted with different trigger groups, slides and barrels that allow different caliber rounds to be fired with the same handgun frame. It is “Coyote Brown” in color and has interchangeable hand grips and is ambidextrous allowing the user to tailor the ergonomics to best fit their hands and optimize their performance, according to the Army.
“The Army determined that this MHS (full size handgun, compact handgun, ammunition, and ancillary components was the best value in terms of its performance capability, the terms and conditions of the vendor’s proposal, and price,” an Army spokesman told Defense Daily.
The contract ceiling is $580M which is sufficient to procure Army requirements, other service requirements, and potential Foreign Military Sales requirements. The deal covers procurement of handguns and components for up to ten years and ammunition for up to five years.
The contract allows the Army and other services to procure Sig Sauer’s proposed XM1152 Full Metal Jacket, XM1153 Special Purpose ammunition and training rounds; their proposed full size and compact variants of the MHS; and ancillary components.
From the August 2015 release of the MHS request for proposals until contract award on Jan. 19, the competition took 17 months. Within that timeframe, the first 150 days was for industry, at their request, to prepare proposals and hardware for the competition. A user assessment was conducted that involved 135 uniformed service members from across all DoD services, according to the Army.
The Army anticipates that the first MHS weapons will be provided to units designated to participate in Initial Operational Testing in mid-2018. As the Army fields MHS, the full-size variants will replace the M9 handgun and the compact variants will replace the M11 handguns. The M9 and M11 handguns will eventually be phased out of the Army inventory.